Hyperion’s
Strauss Lieder series continues to demonstrate that the
composer’s achievements in this genre are among the most
fascinating and accomplished of his works. This latest volume
includes, for instance, the delicious Schlechtes Wetter from Op 69,
and the lovely and unknown Waldesfahrt from the same group. The
delicately beautiful Malven (never published in Strauss’s
lifetime, and first performed by Kiri Te Kanawa in 1985), with
which the recital ends, is known as Strauss’s ‘Fifth
Last Song’.

The central
work recorded here, Krämerspiegel, owes its genesis to
Strauss’s long-lasting and bitter dispute with the German
music publishing industry. A Berlin literary critic, Alfred Kerr,
wrote him a witty set of satirical verses lampooning music
publishers, mentioning many of Strauss’s principal enemies by
name. Strauss set all twelve poems to music, and this practical
joke finally saw the light of day in 1921. It is easy to understand
why the cycle is now rarely performed, given that the texts consist
entirely of in-jokes, and that the lion’s share of the music
is given to the pianist. But Strauss’s music is well worth
savouring, not least for its humorous references to Strauss’s
own works, such as Der Rosenkavalier and Ein Heldenleben, and
especially for the beautiful prelude to the eighth song and its
reprise as the final extended postlude—used by the composer
nearly a quarter of a century later, in his opera
Capriccio.

Roger Vignoles
is the curator and pianist of this series, and also writes the
informative booklet notes. Making her Hyperion debut is soprano
Elizabeth Watts, of whom The Guardian commented at a recent Strauss
Lieder recital: ‘Watts, winner of the Lieder prize at Cardiff
Singer of the World in 2007, is already a major artist, but this
struck me as making a transformation into a great one, as well as
allowing us to hear her in music she seems to have been born to
sing. Watts has the right tonal glamour for Strauss along with that
tricky combination of vocal ease and immaculate control that his
work requires.’